It's Official
by LilyRedHead
Summary: James Potter always had a bit of an attraction to Lily Evans, but when did it actually become a serious infatuation? Well, it all starts when he somehow ends up getting paid to try to take her out on a date... Good luck with that one, James.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is a little something I got inspiration from the movie 10 Things I Hate About You, not the same plot mind you, but a bit of the general idea. I hope you enjoy it, and just for a heads up, this whole thing is written in present tense, I usually write in past tense, cuz i'm bad at present, but a friend of mine i'm co- writing with always writes in present and she's always ticked when i write in past and she's trying to break me of it at least when i'm writing with her. So I'm practicing with this story. I hope its not too bad. please review and let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the movie ten things i hate about you (but that doesn't even have much to do with the story anyway lol)

**It's Official**

**Chapter One**

The be – speckled boy is staring at the white stone steps smirking. This is going to turn out great. Everything is all set he just needs the signal. Sighing he takes a glance at his watch. Twenty-Five more seconds. He knows this has to be timed perfectly so he can't cheat those seconds, the potion is only going to last thirty minutes exactly – it is the best they can do splitting up the small vial he had previously nicked from Slughorn's office. Looking around making sure the coast was still clear from where he's posted, he starts digging around his pocket pulling out a small vial (even tinier than its original), holding milk colored liquid. The taste better be more tolerable than it looks. Fifteen seconds. He pops open the top, still looking at his watch. Five seconds. He raised the vial to his lips. Three, Two, One. He downs it all in one gulp, immediately choking at the taste. This better work.

_Helloooo? Does this work? _A familiar voice invades his mind.

_Padfoot? _James Potter thinks testing it out.

_Prongs!! This is so cool! I can read your thoughts! Bwahahaha. _

_I can read yours too, hmm…. So that's where you hid those magazines... _

_Hey! You can't look in that part of my mind! Scram! _

_Hahahah, Just kidding, I can only hear what your thinking right now. _

_Because that's what its supposed to do. _A new voice intervenes.

_Hey Moony! Where's Wormtail?_

_I'm over here… _Says a new voice that sounds like Peter Pettigrew.

_Okay, so is everything ready? _

_Slytherin Common Room is ready. _Sirius Black reports in military like fashion.

_And Wormtail and Me have got the South and West stairs covered. _Remus Lupin confirms.

_Good, I got North ready. _James replies taking out his wand.

_Y'know, I kinda like this potion, reading each others thoughts is quite handy when we're corridors apart_. Sirius thinks in what are now the four boys minds.

_Well, Padfoot, you're just around the corner from where I'm at._ James points out, looking at the direction where the corridor turns right. Sirius peeps his head around the corner grinning mischievously while waving at him.

_Guys quit messing around, we got to get started, we got twenty-five minutes left!_ Remus reminds them.

_Oh, right. I'll start in a count of three, and then Padfoot your good to go. Then we meet at the top of Moony's stairs where he's got the cloak. Right?_

_Got it!_ The other marauders chorused.

_This is gonna be great… One, two…. Three!_

James waves his wand muttering a few charms. He watches as the stone stairs slowly disappear, and then reappear as if they had moved so that the exit from the dungeon floor is – well… not there. He hears an explosion and whips around seeing Sirius run out of the Slytherin Common Room. Looks like he did his job. Now they have to escape.

His comrade runs over and stops seeing the stairs had clearly moved.

"That is creepy!" He mutters taking a step back from the drop into a lower level of the dungeons.

Shut up! James warns him through his mind. But Sirius was right. Even though he knows he's going to be fine, he takes a cautious step to where the stairs should be.

And he feels stone. The charm works! He made the real stairs transparent!

_Let's go_ He tells his friend. Trying not to trip, they ascend the invisible stairs as fast as they could without tripping. James soon finds out that looking down is not the best thing to do when you can't see the floor your walking on.

_So, how was your mission, Padfoot?_ James inquires as they reach the top of the stairs.

_Amazing. That smell in there is so putrid. Those Slytherins are going to be stuck for awhile, if they leave their door open long enough the smell'll spread through the entire floor!_

_Excellent! C'mon, Moony's waiting, we got thirteen minutes to get there, and those Slytherins will be trying to run away from that stench any minute now. Shame we can't witness this without getting caught._

And the two Marauders take off. James enjoys the thrill, adrenaline-rushing thrill that he experiences whenever running away from the scene of the crime, which is all his fault. It's a amazing feeling, right in your gut, it almost gives you butterflies. He can't help but grin as he and Sirius passed an intersecting hallway.

James didn't get much farther than that. Something trips him and he finds himself on the floor, and he makes his way to get up, when he sees a foot that is extended in front of him. It is definitely a females shoe. Sticking out right in his path. So that's what tripped him. His eyes trail upward to identify the said woman who did the deed. Soon his eyes met green ones.

Oh boy.

"Going somewhere, Potter?" Lily Evans stands before him arms folded, with her new prefects badge shining brightly, even in the dark. James finally stands up and now has to look down to see her cold face.

" 'Evening, Evans. What brings you to this part of the castle?" Lily ignores him.

"What are you doing here after hours?"

"You tell me." James smirks. Lily exasperatedly sighs.

"I'm not playing games, Potter."

"Well neither am I." She wrinkles her nose

"Then what is that rotten stench I smell?" She advances closer to him looking right at him. The expression in her eyes nearly slices right through him.

"Oh that – wait a second, are you insinuating that I smell?"

"Yes, of arrogance, disrespect, and what ever really does smell here. I know you did it."

"Why do you judge me? What if I didn't do it?"

"Who else is here?" She motioned to the empty corridor. "No one, I can guarantee that, its 2 AM, everyone is sleeping."

"Not everyone." James mutters under his breath. He's surprised none of the Slytherins started screaming by now. Or if they finally figure out that those stairs are exactly where they were left when they went to bed. Lily catches what he says.

"What did you do!?" He shrugs

"Nothing really, just a harmless joke."

"Let me guess, you were messing with the Slytherins again. Why can't you leave them alone!" _Dang, she's getting good_. James thinks to himself.

_You know I can still read your thoughts,_ Sirius' voice invades his mind. _You've been standing with Evans for the past five minutes, what happened?_

_Just some interrogating is all, I'll get out of it. You guys back at the room?_

_Yup. We're keeping an eye on you though._

"Because they don't deserve it." James says simply. Lily makes an annoyed face. "If you want to see for yourself, the mess is that way." James points in the direction of the Slytherin Common Room.

"Is this a trap?"  
"Er… no." James finds himself being grabbed by the wrist and the red head drags him down the corridor. Obviously she isn't taking any chances to being set up.

They peek down at the sight before them. Lily makes a disgusted sound and covers her nose. Slytherins were coughing and holding their noses, and talking amongst themselves like mad, obviously waiting for the stairs to move back so they could find a means of an escape from the smell. Some walk back into the common room only to come back out with greenish faces. James is pulled again back to cleaner air.

"What did you do?!" She says furiously, taking in big gulps of air.

"You just saw."

"I smelled! What was that? It smelled like something died!"

"No, actually that was just a bit of our own invention, made from the contents of our garbage, and a few dung bombs." James casually informs her.

"Eugh, you are disgusting! "

"And just in case you were wondering we made the real stairs transparent, so they think they're stuck on their floor. I can't believe they haven't figured it out yet, I guess I was right about their stupidity." James knows he probably shouldn't have revealed that but he was so proud of the accomplishment it was too difficult to resist.

"That's it Potter! 20 points from Gryffindor, five from the four of you and 3 days of detention!" Lily illuminates her wand, and roughly shoves a detention slip in his hand. "I really wanted to go to bed after this, but now I have to go report this to Slughorn! Thanks a lot." She says dripping with sarcasm. After giving him a dirty look, she stalks away to probably go down invisible steps – because that's the only way to get to professor Slughorn, if he isn't already awake due to the ruckus of the rest of his house.

James glances at his detention slip, shaking his head he shoves it in his pocket. Why does he have to get the detention? His friends were in it as equally as he was. James has to admit though, seeing her in the light from her wand, he notices she was no longer the cute first year he met on the train. Her personality is still the same, but she is actually attractive. Her red hair now waves whenever she moves, and her face is more that of a young woman – oh and her eyes he never noticed they were that green before. Merlin, if she isn't so contradicting, he might actually date her. But, she's not really his type, and obviously she isn't interested. But the thought of it is intriguing…

_I can still read your thoughts._

_Shut up._


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hello, my lovely fellow fanfictioneers! I have to say I was a bit disappointed. I only got one single review! From the lovely _Jessiquie_, so, _Jessiquie,_ for being my first only reviewer, you get a little treat hands over chocolate chip cookie there you go!**

**Other thanks: _Jessiquie_, and _rebeccaaarteaga_ for putting my story on alert!**

**As for the rest of you, if you want a cookie, or what ever baked goods I am offering. points at that purple button at the bottom of the chapter you got to review. I'm not being competitive or anything, but I adore hearing your input, and the more reviews I get, the more I'm reminded to update. (seeing as it took me so long to update this one… I wasn't reminded much)**

**My personal apology for waiting so long to update, its not that I had writer's block, I was just lacking inspiration, the words just weren't really flowing through my fingers until about 1:30 AM August 1st. This chapter had been started about a week or two before that. It's been rough, especially for a person like myself whose writing is literally everything. I'm sure you all understand, I'm rambling now lol so…**

**Onward!**

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately the amazing Marauders are not mine (but I'd LOVE to own them we'd have tons of fun winks ) the Marauders and anything in relation to the Harry Potter series belong to the one and only J.K. Rowling, without her, our Marauders wouldn't exist, so, therefore, I'm not too upset about not owning them. I can dream about 'em all I want, those dreams are all mine.**

**Its Official**

**Chapter Two**

Turns out the prank had a bigger turn out that they had planned. The Slytherin floor stinks so bad the Slytherins had to sleep in the Great Hall for the rest of the night, while house elves, professors and the like are still getting rid of the smell. Potions is cancelled for the day and James sees that as a cause for celebration. This is worth three days of detention. In- fact, later that night the Marauders are planning a little party with themselves and a few select Gryffindor guys to drink a little and kick back. They keep it small because they typically save their huge house party for victorious Quidditch games. They also made a rule (well Remus did) a year ago, that there would be no drinking during mixed gender parties, because they didn't want what happened during that one 'incident' happen again so small guy-only parties was the opportune moment for the Marauders to bring out the firewhiskey.

James is going to be a little late to this party unfortunately, unless he can get done with his first detention complete quickly enough. He glances around the History of Magic classroom. Peter is asleep, and he notices that Lily can't even take notes about Binns' monotonous droning about something or other. James surveys her a bit, he notices how serious she was last night about her needing sleep. Her tiny hand rests on top of her quill giving up on notes, her other hand is rolled in a fist supporting her chin. She stares into the wall behind Binns with tired eyes, he spots bags under the green orbs that her eyelids begin hiding as she struggles to keep awake. James shockingly feels concerned for her, she really should just go to sleep. Its not like Binns would notice anyways.

He looks at his parchment, which he is supposed to be taking notes, but instead, he scribbles:

_**Hey Evans do yourself a favor and fall asleep. You look dead over there. **_

He tears it off leaving some room for her to write back and slides it over to her desk. She glances at it and rolls her eyes, but she picks up her quill and jots something down in her neat penmanship and nearly misses his desk.

_Are you making fun of me, Potter? It's _your _fault I'm tired in the first place! Leave me alone! And for Merlin's sake use commas when addressing people in letters! _

James sighs. She has a point.

_**Okay, so maybe it was my fault, but you didn't have to stay up half the night waking up Sluggie. Merlin, Evans, -see? Happy?- I was just saying you should go ahead and sleep while you still have the chance. The forty five minutes will do you good. **_

He passes it back smirking at her reaction.

_Ha! You admit it! And of course I did! It's my prefect duty! Quit telling me what to do, I know bloody well how much time we have until the end of class, and I can wait to sleep until tonight. By the way it's Professor _S-L-U-G-H-O-R-N. _You write like a child, Potter. _

_**Evans, just sleep. **_

_No. Hand me this paper again and I'll shred it. _

James decides to take her word for it and stops satisfied. Whenever she isn't looking he sneaks glances. Soon enough, she finally rests her head on her arms and begins to doze. James smirks. About time, he's getting tired of watching her struggle to stay awake.

To take up his time, he doodles all over his remaining parchment. Nothing really important, signing his own name, sketches of a stag, etc.

When the class ends, he yawns as he gathers his things together. Swinging his bag over his shoulder he glances over at Lily, whom is still soundly sleeping on her desk. His gaze lingers on her peaceful face, comparing to the usual angry expression on her face (directed specially for him) he notices that it gives a different look to her. She looks very pretty, he wonders if she would ever soften up to him. He shakes his head and lightly taps her on the shoulder. As she begins to stir, he turns and leaves the classroom.

All through dinner, despite the amusing scene Sirius displays with his carrots and mashed potatoes, James could not help but keep glancing back in Lily's direction. He observes her table etiquette, chewing with her mouth closed. He looks at Sirius' vulgar open-mouthed chewing, back to hers. James makes a mental note to try to close his mouth when chewing. The comparison is amazing. He also watches her laughing with amongst her friends, probably over something funny Frank Longbottom's girlfriend, Alice, said. James feels a little envious; she really has a dazzling smile, and it was very unlikely she would ever flash that smile in his direction.

"Earth to Prongs!" James looks back at his friends. Peter is waving a hand in front of his face. James politely brushes it away.

"Yeah? Sorry, I must've zoned out." Peter shrugs and continues with his eating.

"You sure picked a nice spot to zone out," Sirius says following the trail that James' eyes once were. "Who will it be this time? Vance? Now she's a feisty one. But if you really want feisty, Evans is the – well no, I wouldn't call her feisty I would just-"

"Padfoot," Remus interrupts calmly, holding his glass of pumpkin juice. "Could you please save that for this evening?" Sirius complies and starts working on his streak, his cutting making scratching sounds against his plate. James winces as the unpleasant noise. James notes that this is probably the reason Sirius can't keep a girlfriend for very long, even though the boy insists he was the one who broke it off due to wanting to enjoy the single life, or perhaps the other reason where 'it just wasn't working' Or maybe – well, that's the basic idea. Maybe he should make all of Sirius' exes take a survey about their past relationship. Then the truth will be out, although maybe slightly exaggerated about the romantic stuff. James is interrupted when Sirius belches.

"Well," he says cleaning the steak sauce off of his plate. "Come on, Moony, Wormtail, let's go dig out the 'essentials' for the gathering tonight. See you soon, Prongs" Sirius gives James a sympathetic look, before turning with the rest of the Marauders to leave. James sighs as he gets up and after leaving the Great Hall, heads a different direction: the Trophy Room. Neither of them care about the detention much anymore, the record was already broken a while ago (by yours truly), by, Merlin knows how many detentions. Besides, it is much more fun not getting caught. It adds to the thrill. It is also a great kick when Filch would accuse them of something, they actually did do, but they have a full alibi and there being no evidence, the cranky sadist would have to go wallow somewhere doing who knows what. Figuring out what Filch actually does in his spare time, if he has any is on the Marauder's list of things to do. James can hardly wait; he and Sirius have already come up with numerous possible situations, some horrifically disturbing, and others actually quite funny.

James opens the door to the trophy room, gagging a bit at the dust in the air. Do they really only reserve the cleaning of this room for detention? James hasn't cleaned this room in awhile, but he still remembers the drill. In fact, he did not realize that this room could get this bad other people got detention right? Professor Slughorn enters right behind him, taking a deep breath of –er- slightly clean air, and instantly coughing from inhaling the dust. He still must be cleaning his lungs out… He regains his composure and almost glares at James.  
"I had to spend the night in the teachers lounge because of you Potter." He says disapprovingly. It takes all the self-control James has to stop himself from laughing. "You know what to do." He drawls tiredly, having to do this routine more times than he could count. "Let's just get this over with. Dust this place and I'll let you go." James does not respond, he hands his wand to the professor and heads into the closet and gets out a duster. Slughorn takes a kerchief from his pocket and sneezes into it. He wobbles over to the only chair in the room, used by teachers supervising detentions, wipes the dust off of the seat, and sits down.

If James ever has to do real live muggle housekeeping in his lifetime, he'd turn out to be very good at it – minus the cooking. Unfortunately, James has no experience in the meal preparation, because he has never been sent to detention in the kitchens, mostly because the house elves down there like to keep it clean on their own. But thanks to his time in detention, he can do typical house cleaning, from scrubbing and un-clogging toilets, to getting rid of cockroaches (his professors sometimes got creative to make detentions less tedious seeing as they are supervising detention to at least one marauder, at _least_ once a week.) James doesn't really mind the cleaning and such, every once in awhile he and the rest of the Marauders would tackle the disaster known as their dormitory when they haven't had detention in awhile to keep up their cleaning skills… but if they clean regularly in detention, their room gets very, very neglected- except for Remus' end, but Sirius and James are convinced its because he has served barely half the ammount of detentions they've gone through.

As James dusts every few minutes he opens the window and whacks the feather duster against the side of the outside wall get be rid of the dust so he can continue. Coughing, he returns to his work, silently, trying to be as fast as possible to make it to the gathering.

Slughorn clears his throat. James not pausing in his work turns to the man trying not to have an asthma attack in his seat.

"Haven't seen you in detention much recently, Potter." He comments casually. James shrugs moving to dust a rather large trophy addressed to Norbert Mckilles, special award for School Leadership back in 1576.

"Well, erm OWLS are coming up." James knows that excuse was overused, but it is no lie. Slughorn seems to buy it.

"I'm shocked you study at all, seeing your performance in my class." James almost winces at the numerous incidents he's experienced in Potions.  
"I'm just not good at Potions, I guess." James continues his dusting. That was a rather awkward conversation… hardly counts as a conversation at all.

James takes off like a Firebolt for the common room the very moment Slughorn hands over his wand seeing the finished job. James barely remembers how he managed to make it to the dorm room in less than seven minutes. He shuts his door behind him and catches his breath. He looks around. Everyone invited had arrived.

There were the rest of the Marauders, Frank, and the rest of the Quidditch team – erm.. the males of the Quidditch team, Jeremy, Keeper, decent fellow and a 7th year, and Derek, one of the Beaters, Sirius was the other Beater, with James as Chaser and the three girls that made up the team as seekers and chasers. Derek, is a 6th year, decently popular, and a bit of a charmer on occasion. Sirius immediately jumps up with a bottle of firewhiskey on hand.

"Good timing, mate!" he grins, obviously a little intoxicated, by the way of his tie on his uniform gone missing, and his shirt un-tucked, 'course they did that anyway, but no one has crossed the room that clumsily in quite a while. Sirius hands James the bottle. He gratefully opens it up and takes a swig letting the fiery taste burn its way down his throat.

"So what did I miss?" James asks finding a seat comfortably on his bed. Remus looks up from his homework, his bottle of butter beer resting next to him. James observes everyone else in the room. Looks like no one's finished their first bottle yet –except Sirius and Peter. So, he only has to worry about those two getting drunk anytime soon.

"The usual." Good, James missed Sirius' first stage when it comes to drinking.

"Anyway!" Sirius exclaims from his spot, also on his own bed, trying to strike up conversation while trying to down the rest of the contents in his bottle. James mentally predicted it would be about friend's favorite subject. "Has anyone noticed how Marlene McKinnon has been giving Moony over there _the look_?" Girls. Remus shot a death glare at Sirius.

"There is no look." He denies flatly. "There is other reasons girls talk to us besides wanting to date us." Just about everyone else in the room rolled their eyes."

"Sirius," Jeremy inquires, "are you still single? No one can ever keep track of what you're up to." Sirius nods.

"Yeah, still single, but I've got my eye on Emmeline Vance. She – besides Evans, is the only girl in Gryffindor I haven't dated yet -that is of dating age." Remus turns around from his book.

"Is that the only reason why you're interested in her?"

"No!" Sirius snaps. "She's hot, and will be a little hard to get." Remus sighs and shakes his head turning back to his book.

"Speaking of Lily Evans." Derek looks up. He swallows a sip of his drink and looks particularly in James' direction. "She's looking quite grown up this year." James shrugs.

"Yeah, what about it?" Derek looks almost as if he was going to laugh.

"Oh come on, you haven't thought about it?"

"Have you?" James takes a sip of his firewhiskey and leans back against his pillow.

"James, a good portion of the males in this school have, you never noticed?"

"Perhaps, but what does this have to do with me?" James decides not to drink too much for the next couple minutes until this conversation dies down, he doesn't want to say something he'll regret. James suspects Derek is playing at something, he can't pin point what. Perhaps it is just the alcohol.

"Come on, I'm not bonkers, James, I've seen the way you look at her. You fancy her." If James had firewhiskey in his mouth, he would have choked on it.

"So what if I do? I mean, yeah she's attractive, and single… but I can't make it much more than that, she hates my guts in case you haven't noticed."

"Do you think you could change that?" James sits up.

"What are you playing at, Derek?" He says suspiciously. Derek gets up from his chair and steps forward leaning against James' bedpost.

"Fine then, you got me. I got a little proposition." James raises an eyebrow.

"You mean a bet?"

"Sort of. Look, you and I both know there are a lot of perverted arses in this school right?"

"Yeah… I'm listening."

"James you're not half bad as those others out there, and we both want her to have a half decent guy who isn't already taken yet right?" Those arses can be very manipulative…

"Of course!"

"So, we just need to make sure that if she does go out with someone, its got to be someone who likes her, and will treat her right."

"Okay, so you want me to take her out?" Great. Of all men, Derek chooses him, the bloke Evans' hates. He should've chosen Remus… then again, if Derek had chosen Remus… James would be mad. He isn't sure why, but he would be.

"Close. I like her too, James, so, what I'm asking is: we both go after her. I don't know how she feels about me either, so it'll be a rough road for the both of us. But so that one of us doesn't give up just because of another guy pining for her heart, I've put some incentive into it: a hundred galleons goes to the one of us who gets her on his arm first."

"Wait, you want me to fight you for her? For money?" This is stupid… James shakes it off; Derek probably just has had too much to drink, to think about the stupidity of this idea.

"The money isn't the main deal." Derek quickly covers himself trying to still keep James interested. "Look. Its just there so that it motivates us, so that we won't let anyone else touch her." No one will touch her anyways! And definitely not Derek, he isn't a bad guy or anything; he just isn't going to lay a finger on Evans. Not on James Potter's watch.

"Money I've got," James responds calmly. "I don't want to use a girl for money. I'll do it, but it's in her best interest only." So that he can keep Derek from trying this on his own.

"So we got a deal then?" James hopes Derek will get really drunk that he'll forget about this night.

"Yeah, sure."

"You lot are witnesses." Derek motions to the rest of the drinking boys in the room. He holds out his hand in front of James to shake on it. Doing it the old fashioned way? "No telling her about it, no trying to cheat your way through it. As if this night never took place"

James reaches out his hand and shakes Derek's outstretched one firmly.

**A/N: I hope you liked it, I tried to edit it the best I could, again I'm pretty awful at present tense, and most of this chapter was written at 3 AM so bear with me if there are some mistakes. Now, I'm going to take a nap lol. Please review! It'll make me happy when I wake up, don't forget you get a cookie in return!**


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